Waste disposal sites provide some of the harshest environments in which machines operate because of the ingestion of material into an intersection between a part rotatable relative to another part of a machine. For example, wire, cables, and other debris can be pulled into the intersection between a hub of a final drive and a final drive housing of a track-type tractor and cause a metal-to-metal face seal to fail. Consequently, lubricant being retained by the metal-to-metal face seal can begin to leak which can further hasten wear and failure of the final drive components.
To prevent this failure, guards have been installed to protect these rotating intersections. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,231,136 and 6,293,631 to Freeman discloses a guard for the final drive of a track chain sprocket. While providing some protection, once debris passes through the grooves, the debris has direct access to the seal resulting in lubricant leakage. Other examples include U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,556,323, 6,371,578, 6,322,170, 6,076,843, 5,967,242, 5,951,123, 4,640,559, 4,239,297, 3,912,336, 2,518,481, and US Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0140287. Additionally, these guards may be difficult to remove and clean once installed and debris has been ingested into the crevices of the guards. The present invention is directed to overcome one or more of the problems as set forth above.